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<h2><a name="SECTION0024220000000000000000"></a><a name="shlex-parsing-rules"></a>
<br>
22.2.2 Parsing Rules
</h2>

<p>
When operating in non-POSIX mode, <tt class="class">shlex</tt> will try to obey to
the following rules.

<p>

<ul>
<li>Quote characters are not recognized within words
      (<code>Do"Not"Separate</code> is parsed as the single word
      <code>Do"Not"Separate</code>);
</li>
<li>Escape characters are not recognized;
</li>
<li>Enclosing characters in quotes preserve the literal value of
      all characters within the quotes;
</li>
<li>Closing quotes separate words (<code>"Do"Separate</code> is parsed
      as <code>"Do"</code> and <code>Separate</code>);
</li>
<li>If <tt class="member">whitespace_split</tt> is <code>False</code>, any character not
      declared to be a word character, whitespace, or a quote will be
      returned as a single-character token. If it is <code>True</code>,
      <tt class="class">shlex</tt> will only split words in whitespaces;
</li>
<li>EOF is signaled with an empty string (<code>''</code>);
</li>
<li>It's not possible to parse empty strings, even if quoted.
</li>
</ul>

<p>
When operating in POSIX mode, <tt class="class">shlex</tt> will try to obey to the
following parsing rules.

<p>

<ul>
<li>Quotes are stripped out, and do not separate words
      (<code>"Do"Not"Separate"</code> is parsed as the single word
      <code>DoNotSeparate</code>);
</li>
<li>Non-quoted escape characters (e.g. "<tt class="character">\</tt>")
      preserve the literal value of the next character that follows;
</li>
<li>Enclosing characters in quotes which are not part of
      <tt class="member">escapedquotes</tt> (e.g. "<tt class="character">'</tt>") preserve the literal
      value of all characters within the quotes;
</li>
<li>Enclosing characters in quotes which are part of
      <tt class="member">escapedquotes</tt> (e.g. "<tt class="character">"</tt>") preserves the literal
      value of all characters within the quotes, with the exception of
      the characters mentioned in <tt class="member">escape</tt>. The escape characters
      retain its special meaning only when followed by the quote in use,
      or the escape character itself. Otherwise the escape character
      will be considered a normal character.
</li>
<li>EOF is signaled with a <tt class="constant">None</tt> value;
</li>
<li>Quoted empty strings (<code>''</code>) are allowed;
</li>
</ul>

<p>

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